Chapter Nineteen
One Earth month later…
It had been hard for Kodran to delay the ceremony until Talia and Lukan were ready to visit, but Rosamund had insisted.
“Of course you’d end up with a dragon,” Talia teased, as they reclined on a padded couch in the gardens behind Kodran’s home. They were sitting on a grouping of chairs around a round stone table, on a beautiful spring day.
“Draell,” Kodran corrected her. “Humans only invented the name dragon as a corruption of the word Draell.”
“Sure, sure.” Talia waved a hand at him dismissively as her mate Lukan poured her another glass of wine. She took a long, appreciative sip. “Whatever you are, you make excellent wine. I’m jealous, Rosamund. I’ll have to visit you a lot.”
“We will give you the recipe, and some cuttings from the dleebafruit berry trees,” Kodran said graciously. “But of course you must also visit frequently, because it will make my mate happy.” He winked at Rosamund, who leaned against him with a sigh of contentment.
The mating ceremony had just concluded, and the entire Draell clan was celebrating with an enormous party.
Soon, Kodran would fly Rosamund off to their honeymoon cabin, where they would spend the next ten solar circles in sensual bliss. But for right now, Rosamund was enjoying the company of her friends and her new clanmates.
And she was also cuddling Verona, one of Talia’s twins, while Nelka was cradling Laruk, the other twin, with a dreamy expression, and shooting looks at her own daughter, Lina. Verona and Laruk had tiny, pointed little ears with tufts of fur on the ends, and they made adorable squeaking noises.
“Stop looking at me like that,” Lina griped. “I will mate when I chose to mate. Besides, it’s Rosamund’s turn first. She will give you grandlings so you can stop nagging me every waking moment of my life.”
“By the way,” Rosamund added, “I have to thank you for helping to ensure the mating ceremony took place.”
Lina flashed her a blinding, innocent smile. “Oh, you mean helping with the preparations and the dress fitting? My pleasure.”
“No, I mean I know who sabotaged the FTL drive and ensured that I would have to stay here,” Rosamund said. “Someone who works in the clan’s engineering corps. Someone with a vested interest in me staying here and getting mated.”
“Goodness, who could that be?” Lina smiled sweetly. “Please let me know when you figure it out.”
“I will do that,” Rosamund said.
Kodran flashed his sister a look. “Did you really…”
“Did I forget that I needed to get some more dleebafruit pastry? Yes, I did, and I am starving, thanks for reminding me.” Lina shot out of her chair and vanished into the crowd.
Kodran watched her go with a thoughtful look on his face.
“Interesting,” he said. “But it makes perfect sense. Nobody else would have had motive, ability and opportunity to get at the FTL Drive. I cannot be angry with her, of course.” He smiled fondly at Rosamund.
“Me either,” Rosamund admitted.
Talia leaned over to take her baby back, and Rosamund reluctantly surrendered her.
“Don’t worry,” Talia assured her, “You’ll be following in my footsteps soon.”
“I certainly hope so.” Rosamund stroked Verona’s thick, curly brown hair.
“I know so.” Talia flashed her a confident grin. “And I’m always right.”
“Of course you are,” Rosamund said, giving her a skeptical look. Then she pointed across the lawn. “By the way, thanks for bringing Mar-ee and Far=ex.” The two serv-bots were moving through the crowd, carrying trays of drinks even though they were guests. Dot-R was following them, carrying a tray of appetizers. Serv-bots just couldn’t help it; it was in their programming.
“Are you kidding? Like I could have stopped them. I’m just glad that Dot-R wants to come back home to Ilyria. Her parental units were driving me crazy worrying about her.”
Kodran threw a brawny arm over Rosamund’s shoulder, and she settled against him with a smile. Everything was working out beautifully.
Prenzal and Feodora had already had their mating ceremony a couple of weeks earlier, and he was a doting and attentive step-parent to Feodora’s daughter. The Draell-nar were now living with Kodran’s clan, working side by side to build up the new colony.
And Rosamund had plans to introduce her sister to the Starcrossed Dating Agency on Ilyria. She had high hopes of fixing her sister up with an alien mate of her own.
